Well, after studying all day yesterday I somehow managed to eek outexactly 70% on this God forsaken exam. Ask me if I even know whata bearish put call straddle somersault is ... now ask me if I care.

Don't get me wrong, if I actually was in sales or trading, I would havetaken this very seriously. But I am in a sellside advisoryfirm. Then again, since when did anything worth while in lifereally make sense?

I took it back in March and put in about 3 months. Unfortunately I studied on my own and didn't have peers or a class to lean on. I just hit the books hard every week and barely escaped that damn test - 72 but i passed

I registered about 2 weeks for the 7 but I kept putting it off partlybecause of my massive workload. I skimmed through the materialsporadically and 95% of my studying was done the day and night before(9am - 10pm) while at work. I concentrated on munis andoptions. I memorized the key tables and formulas (max loss, maxgain, hedging strats, etc) and wrote them down as soon as I got to theexam. I consistently scored just below 50% on practice exams.

I was so sure I was going to fail that I jammed through the exam inabout 3 hours (not incl 30 min for lunch). I was very surprised Ipassed and I probably did not deserve to pass. I would neverrecommend to do what I did - it was stupid.

I am an associate in investment banking (M&A, corp fin) so I thinkI am forced to take the 63 and have no option. I will be takingthis exam very very seriously unlike the 7.

A buddy of mine whose in IB at Merrill studied for the 7 in one day,took the test the next day, studied for the 63 after taking the 7 andtook the 63 the following day. Got exactly a 70% on both. He's myhero.